


Start Again

by potentiality_26



Series: Start Again [1]
Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Fix-It, Friendship, M/M, Missing Scene, Multi, Not Trailer Compliant, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-10-28 10:23:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10829322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potentiality_26/pseuds/potentiality_26
Summary: Amelia had had to pass information that way before, though it had never been this critical.  There were so many agents out in the field, so many wearing their glasses even in their everyday lives, that- though slow- it was always an extremely intense hour of work.So yes, it monopolized her attention.  And yes, it took her all of that hour to realize that the only screen which wasn't supposed to be active was- very slightly-moving.After Merlin tasks her with getting as many Kingsman agents as possible to safety, Amelia makes contact with one agent she didn't expect.





	Start Again

**Author's Note:**

> Not Brit-picked.

Amelia was good at what she did. 

She was smart, she kept a cool head even in a difficult situation, she did as she was told- and once she was committed to something she never backed down. 

That was how she made it through Kingsman's surprisingly grueling technician training.  It was also how she found herself posing as a potential recruit in the Lancelot trials, there to 'die' and make a vital point to the others.  Amelia simply wasn't one to flinch. 

So it was saying something, that right now she was scared.  She had stayed in London to help out behind the scenes- for reasons she hadn't let herself examine too closely- and though she had known that the investigation into the previous Lancelot's death was ongoing she had never expected it to coalesce into something big.  Something end of the world big.  But then the news that they had lost another agent was followed, all too quickly, by the news that Arthur too was dead, and that things would likely get worse before they got better.

Merlin ordered her down to a secret bunker she hadn't even known existed.  He told her to make contact with every agent she could and get them somewhere where they could do as little damage as possible. 

She was alone, now- surrounded by feeds from the glasses of almost every agent- and yes, she was scared.  Merlin had cut off communication, saying that he had work to do.  She could only hope that he was all right- and that whatever he was doing would make what she was doing unnecessary.  It was one of the things Amelia liked about Merlin- that he always had plans and back-up plans and redundancies.  He had gone over a dozen variations of the dormitory flooding with her, making sure that every possible eventuality was dealt with and she was perfectly safe.  She trusted him to have her back if he could.

She was just worried that he couldn't this time. 

"This is something to do with what happened to Galahad, isn't it?" Percival asked grimly.  He was her first call; he had just finished taking care of an assassin from the rooftop of an office building.  She caught him halfway down the first flight of stairs, and he locked himself into the nearest supply closet and cuffed his wrists for good measure.

"I believe so," Amelia said.

She was keenly aware of how little she really knew about what was going on.  The reference to Galahad only reinforced that.  She wasn't sure what had actually happened to him, and that was what scared her most of all.  She hadn't known him very well, but she had seen footage from enough of his assignments to feel as though she did.  He had been so vibrant, so full of life.  It was difficult to imagine him dead. 

Still, thinking of him left her all the more resolved to lose no one else that day. 

"Good luck with the others," Percival said.

"Thank you," she replied.  She didn't entirely believe in luck, but this once she thought she might need it. 

The others weren't nearly as straightforward and efficient as Percival.  Kay was all questions she couldn't answer and demands to speak to Merlin.  Bedivere was less verbose but more reluctant to lock himself up with so little explanation.  Bors was cheery as ever, full of offers to help or investigate that she simply couldn't accept just then.  Eventually she came up with a script- _get yourself somewhere isolated, yes Merlin's orders, yes it seems Arthur is gone, no I don't know what happened, no I don't know why, one of the things we taught you_ is _to do what you're told, isn't it?_ \- and things went more smoothly, but slowly nevertheless. 

Amelia had had to pass information that way before, though it had never been this critical. There were so many agents out in the field, so many wearing their glasses even in their everyday lives, that- though slow- it was always an extremely intense hour of work.

So yes, it monopolized her attention. And yes, it took her all of that hour to realize that the only screen which wasn't supposed to be active was- very slightly- _moving_.

Amelia's hand shook faintly as she made contact.  "Galahad?"  Are you..."  She swallowed.  "Are you reading me?"

"Yes," came Galahad's voice as the image shifted.  She saw dark asphalt, then a road and a line of houses and hedges as he assumedly sat up, leaning his back against something.  "I can hear you."

"And you're... all right?" 

He huffed out a breath.  "That remains to be seen.  I _am_ bleeding, but head wounds will do that."  Amelia had a grisly view of Galahad's hands- stained with old blood and fresh- before he said dismissively, "I suspect it's only a graze."

Amelia almost smiled, almost laughed, despite the situation.  This was what she liked best about most Kingsman agents; they could be so blasé in even the worst circumstances.  "Can you move?"

The view through Galahad's glasses jostled and shifted again as he stood up.  "Is there somewhere in particular I should move to?"

"As much as I'd like to say a hospital, I'm not sure it's a good idea.  Is there anywhere you can go with no people?"

The view through Galahad's glasses flicked backward, toward a church with an open door.  "There's no one alive in there."

And perhaps it would be the best place, but he sounded so... haunted.  And if people were dead perhaps the police had been called, and Amelia had no idea how soon whatever was going to happen would happen- assuming it happened at all.  "What about somewhere more... enclosed?"

Galahad was silent for a beat, then, "Storm cellars are common in this part of the world.  I'll investigate one of those."

"Good.  I'll stay on the line with you."

There were only three agents that Amelia hadn't managed to isolate.  One wasn't broadcasting to Kingsman at all.  The other two were broadcasting fine, but one wasn't answering her hails- perhaps his glasses were malfunctioning, or perhaps he had deliberately turned the sound off, she didn't know- while the other confirmed that he had received her message but couldn't currently extricate himself from the warehouse exchange he was participating in.  Watching over Galahad was, for the moment, better than wringing her hands about any of them.  

Because, as cool in a crisis as Amelia could be, she did feel a little like wringing her hands. 

Galahad said, "Have you told anyone that I'm... well- that I'm not dead?"

"Not yet.  Most of the others are also busy getting themselves somewhere safe.  Merlin hasn't been in contact since he sent me down here."  As Galahad found one such cellar and set about breaking into it, Amelia heard her own voice turn embarrassingly plaintive.  She heard herself say, "Do you know what's happening?"

"I don't know for sure," Galahad said, picking the padlock.  "But I know Richmond Valentine is behind it all.  And I know he recently gave away millions of free SIM cards.  And that whatever he did with them had... expansive coverage."  He explained, in sparse but painful detail, how everyone in that church- including him- had started killing each other.  "It was like I couldn't think through the signal," he said quietly.  "It was like there was nothing left of me but rage."

"And you think it's the SIM cards that he did it with?"

"I think it must've been."

Valentine's plan, then, was relatively clear.  He was going to do the same thing to everyone, or at least he was going to try.  Amelia didn't have one of his SIM cards- she had been getting free internet and calls for herself with relative ease since she was a teenager- or any family to worry about, but she passed the information on to the agents.  She doubted many of them would have one either- Kingsman supplied its own amenities, and almost none of them had much life outside of it- but she still told them to smash the card if they had one.  

At the same time, she explained about Galahad.  They needed some good news. 

Grumpy as he normally was, Bedivere took it with particular enthusiasm.  "Good," he said.  "Bastard owes me money."

Galahad laughed when she passed that on.  He had found a place inside the cellar to prop himself up.  There was a single, small light-bulb near one wall and he sat underneath it, his first aid kit in his lap, and bandaged up his 'graze'.  

Amelia never did manage to get those three agents out of danger.  Of the two she was able to watch, all she could do _was_ watch.  And three agents weren't many, not in the larger scheme of things- but when the event they had been preparing for finally happened, she knew those three would weigh on her for the rest of her life.

She would never forget the way they went still.  They armed themselves almost immediately, but they remained motionless for a beat- as if their better instincts were at war with whatever that signal was telling them to do.  

And then they moved. 

Amelia had handled agents in the field.  She had seen violence before- but she had never seen anything like this. 

Until- cutting through the chaos of death- came Galahad's voice.  "Are you all right?" he asked.

"I don't know," she admitted.  "Are you?"

"I seem to be far enough away from the signal this time around."  And that sounded like a _yes_ and a _no_ at the same time, didn't it?

"Was it horrible?" she heard herself ask.  She hadn't meant to, but...

"Yes."

Compared to what it must have been like to _do_ it, Amelia knew that watching the carnage she hadn't been able to prevent was nothing, nothing at all, but-

As if he knew exactly what was going through her mind, Galahad said, "Don't look at it.  You don't need that.  You don't."

"But shouldn't..." Amelia swallowed.  "Shouldn't someone... witness?"

Galahad sounded his age for the first time in all the years she had been part of Kingsman when he said, "We have a duty to the dead, I know that.  But not at the cost of _you_.  Don't look at it."

Amelia hesitated a moment longer, and then she closed her eyes. 

"Now," Galahad said.  "Talk to me."

"What about?"

"I don't know," he said.  "Your personal life, if you have one."

She didn't have much of one, it was true, but she understood what Galahad was trying to do.  It would be best if they didn't talk about work, not at a time like this. 

"Hmm... Are you seeing anyone?"

By his tone, Galahad knew it was a long shot- and since it was such a very long shot Amelia almost snorted.   _As if_.  But... then again... "I did meet someone I really liked, not too long ago.  Someone I..." she trailed off, then tried again: "Someone I thought I might..."  No, she couldn’t find the words. 

"That sounds promising."

Amelia did snort then.  "Not if they think I'm dead."

"Ah." Harry- it felt right to think of him as Harry in that moment- was silent for a beat, then he murmured, "I may be in similar straits myself."  Louder, he added, "Do you mean our new Lancelot, by any chance?"  There was a faint smile in his voice.  

She might not have known much about Harry, but she had suspected he would catch the vague wording.  She was used to being careful in Chester King's Kingsman, but were they even in Chester King's Kingsman anymore? "I do," she admitted.    

Amelia had been avoiding thoughts of Roxy- thoughts of anything even vaguely connected with Roxy- for such a long while that thinking of her again was jarring.  Lancelot hadn't been on Merlin's list of agents for her to contact, which most likely meant that Roxy was actually with him right now.  And it was all too likely- given what was going on outside at the moment- that something terrible had happened to both of them.  Amelia pushed that thought aside; it would do her no good now. 

"We only met the once," she added at last.  It was better to look back on the past than to wallow in fears about the future.  "But if it hadn't been for the trials I think... I think I would've asked her out."

"Perhaps you still can, when it's all over."

If it was ever over, that was.  "You think I have a chance?" Amelia made herself ask.

"I think you can only but try." 

She knew he was right.  She knew that if they made it through the day relatively unscathed it would be cowardly not to face Roxy.  She had felt the spark between them, Amelia was sure she had- it was just a question of whether Roxy would consider that spark worth all the _you staged your own death_ that they would have to get through. "Maybe I will," Amelia said.  Didn't she owe it to herself- owe it to both of them- to see if it could be?  

Those words were met with silence, not just from Harry but from... everyone.  Amelia cracked her eyes open and looked at her screens.  The agents who had locked themselves up were still, and so were the agents who hadn't.  It was difficult to get an accurate body count, but people were beginning to move, beginning to look around themselves in shock and horror.  Amelia hesitated, not sure if that was really it.  She was glad for her hesitation when the violence started again as suddenly as it had stopped. 

Amelia bowed her head.  It was something that the signal _had_ stopped, however briefly.  Something she could only hope meant that Merlin and Roxy were alive and well and close to stopping it for good. 

After what felt like years, silence fell again. 

She said, "Is it over, do you think?"

Harry said, "I hope so."

She waited for a while longer, and then she contacted the agents who had been hidden and took stock with those who hadn't.  Horrible as it had been, Amelia supposed they could take comfort in the fact that neither of them had been around civilians.  "I'll talk to Merlin and get you some help as soon as I can," she told them.  She hailed Merlin again, and finally made contact.  She explained most of what had happened on her end in just a few sentences.

"It could have been worse," Merlin agreed.  "Anything else I should know?"  She could hear Merlin on his keyboard, already at work dispatching their people.

"Well."  Amelia took a breath.  "I made contact with one agent you didn't assign me to."

"Who?"

"Galahad.  He's... he's alive."

The clicking of keys stopped, and Merlin swore colorfully, then- "I have to tell Eggsy."

Amelia wasn't surprised to learn that he had been with Merlin too. 

There was nothing else from Merlin's end until Eggsy's voice exploded out of it: "Harry?  Is that you?"

"Not yet," Amelia said.  "Just a moment." 

A little typing, and she was patched into the feed from Eggsy's glasses for the first time.  He was looking at a wall- like he was fixated, or maybe specifically trying to look at it rather than something else.  No, it wasn't a wall, Amelia thought a moment later- it was a cell door of some kind, and he was on the inside of it.  He seemed all right, though, and Merlin would have told her if they were still in trouble. 

A little more typing, and she had Eggsy patched through to Harry.  

"Hello, Eggsy."  He sounded so tired.

"You're-" Eggsy made a strangled noise.  "You're okay?"

"More or less.  You stopped Valentine?"

"More or less."

"I'm proud of you."  Harry's voice was thick.

Eggsy was silent for a moment, then he whispered, "Thanks," in a tone that suggested he found the word vastly unequal to the task of expressing all that he wanted to say. 

Having handled her share of agents before, Amelia was no stranger to overhearing... certain intimacies.  But, after everything, she supposed they deserved a moment alone.  Still, she hesitated to mute their end of the conversation.  She didn't want to stop thinking about Harry and whatever was going on between him and Eggsy.  She thought there was a good chance it was Eggsy Harry had been alluding to before, when he mentioned also being interested in someone who believed him dead, and she was curious. 

And, well... Two people trying to build something together was so much easier to focus on than everything else that had happened that day.

She finally did mute it and return to the rest of her agents.  Early reports suggested that there had ultimately been few civilian deaths.  The agents she hadn't been able to get somewhere safe had gotten off lightly compared to Galahad- just another reason she hoped things went well between him and Eggsy.  

When next she patched into Harry's feed, he was alone again.  "Eggsy's back on the jet, hopefully getting some rest."

She hesitated to ask a personal question, but since he had done so first...  "So you two are..."

"I'm not sure what we are yet," Harry replied.  "But we're both grateful for the chance to find out."  He learned back against the cellar wall.  "What's next on your agenda?"

"You really want to know?"

"I have little to do but wait for an extraction."

"Well..."  Amelia let out a breath.  In truth, she wasn't entirely sure what was next on her agenda.  "I suppose..."

"There is one more person I'm going to need you to contact," Merlin said, startling her.  She hadn't realized that he was listening.  "Find Lancelot for me.  She doesn't have the glasses on, but she has plenty of tech so she shouldn't be difficult to find."

"Where is she?" Amelia asked, a little hesitantly. 

"The arctic."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"It's a long story," Merlin said with a sigh.  "But she did well and I think she deserves to know that we'll be coming for her soon- and after her, you, if that suits, Galahad."

"Oh, certainly," Harry said.

"Wait, why do you need me to-" Amelia started.  Merlin had obviously been in contact with Roxy already, and he wasn't busy with other things as he had been before- _and_ he had immediately taken any coordination efforts over from her, so it wasn't as though he was resting. 

"You know why," Merlin said. 

"Oh."  Amelia's hands were unsteady again as she sought out Lancelot's signal and patched in.  Even though she knew Merlin would have mentioned it if anything had happened to Roxy, Amelia felt relief shoot through her like lightning when she made the connection.  "Lancelot?  Are you all right?"

"Yes, yes, I'm fine."  Roxy's voice sharpened suddenly: "Amelia?  You're-"

"Uh."  Amelia licked her lips.  She turned the sound off on Roxy's end briefly.  "So she... still doesn't know?"  She hadn't expected Roxy to, not really, but she had hoped...

Harry sounded vaguely amused when he said, "I told Eggsy.  Merlin typically explains everything to whichever recruit becomes an agent, but I suppose things got serious before he had time to tell her."

Merlin made a noise of agreement.

"Wonderful," Amelia said. 

The amusement in Harry's voice only deepened.  "I'll leave you to it."

"And I," Merlin said.

"Cowards."

The last Amelia heard from either of them was Harry laughing. 

Amelia turned Roxy back on.  "Sorry, yes, I'm- I'm alive.  What happened in the dormitory was... it was all fake.  Like how you all did have parachutes, or how the weapon wasn't really live there at the end."  

When she first met Roxy, Amelia had known that if she made it to the final test she would pass.  She wouldn't like it, but she would pass.  Now that she had, Amelia was hesitant to bring it up all the same.  She was sure it hadn't been easy; most of the agents didn't know this, but the technicians' final test was to order someone to pull a trigger in such a situation without knowing that the gun was full of blanks.  She wasn't always sure which was harder. 

"It was to prove a point, I suppose," Amelia added.  She didn't suppose, of course- she knew.  She knew exactly how important every lesson of the trials was, and how hard Merlin had worked to find a safe way to deliver them.  But suddenly all those explanations felt somehow hollow. 

Even important lies were a bad foundation to build something _real_ on. 

"Sorry," she said again.

Roxy let out a long breath.  "It's okay," she said finally.  "I get it.  I wouldn't be here if I couldn't understand, would I?"

That was true, but- "I wish you hadn't had to think..."  Amelia stopped.  Word among those watching the trials at the time had been that Roxy was just a little too game to use her NLP skills on a certain young lady to be entirely straight, but that didn't necessarily mean anything.  Amelia still thought Roxy had felt something the night they met, but suddenly it struck her as terribly presumptuous to think that Roxy had grieved for her as anything more than an unfortunate waste of life.

"I wish I hadn't too," Roxy said, with what sounded like real feeling.  She cleared her throat a few times.  "So, you're already a part of Kingsman, then?"

"Yes.  I'm not usually around HQ, but..."  Amelia hesitated a moment more.  "I could be, if you wanted to... talk again."

"I would like that."  And the warmth in Roxy's tone was possibly- definitely- promising. 

For a while, Amelia just enjoyed that promise.  Then she remembered: "Oh!  Merlin wanted me to tell you that he and Eggsy would be coming to collect you soon."

"I assumed so," Roxy said.  "And..."  It seemed to be her turn to hesitate.  "Will you be there, when we get back?"

"Well, you'll have a stop to make in America first," Amelia said.  "But yes- I absolutely will."

**Author's Note:**

> Come see me on [tumblr](http://potentiality-26.tumblr.com/).


End file.
